Teledildonics made another primative but promising step forward this month with the announcement that Japanese scientists have invented a ‘kissing machine’ that allows you to kiss over the internet.

Judging from the video, the device currently involves only moving a straw around with your tongue, and thus making a remote straw move in the same way. As the young Japanese scientist explains, ‘the elements of a kiss involve the sense of taste, the manner of the breathing, and the moistness of the tongue’. Obviously the team are only taking the first steps, but it’s a start.